Homemade Bear Chair

I made this homemade bear chair for my son before he was born. I had originally wanted to make an old world style cradle, but my wife was not having it. My style has always been older, and more traditional. The cradle was a little too 1800’s for her, so I decided to make a cute little bear chair instead.

Not knowing very much for dimensions, I looked up some common sizes for chairs that younger kids would use. Now that my son is growing up, he is perfect size for the chair. It should also last him several years.

The entire piece is made from Oak. The back is made from a few pieces that were laminated together to make a larger board. Under the chair, the pieces are glued and nailed together. It has a strong skirt that keeps the structure very stable, and does not flex.

Every piece was cut one at a time, and each was fitted to the next by hand. Since I knew I was only going to make one of these, I did not bother making any templates for the construction. I go into how templates can make your projects easier in another article, but in this case they were not needed. Fitting each piece one at a time also let me control for some design opportunities that I did not see coming in my planning stages.

Here is another view of my homemade bear chair. I was going to cut thinner pieces of wood and make a bear face on the back rest, but after painting it brown I decided against it. You could always add some thin wooden accents to the chair, and make it look more like a bear face.

I really like that the back is angled. This was something I knew I wanted in the design from the beginning. It is a solid wood chair, so angling the back rest adds a little more comfort.

The bottom of the chair is fairly heavy, which helps balance the large back rest. For safety reasons, and because my son likes climbing on things, I have the back of the chair tacked to the wall in his room. This way, he can climb all over it and I don’t have to worry about the chair falling over on him. I still have to watch him, because that’s a parent’s job, but knowing the chair can’t fall helps out.

If you want to know the dimensions of this chair, send me an email and I will get them over to you. I don’t have a set of plans exactly, but the dimensions are a good start. Then, you can mold your project to suit your specific needs.

If you have any questions on my Homemade Bear Chair, please leave a comment and I will be glad to answer you. Also, please share my work with your friends on Pinterest! Happy building.

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